Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everybody! How are you all doing?

Didn't really expect to be writing already but here we are!

Not much else to say here.

That or they didn't comment, sadface.

Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...

Back In Present Time... - Zatara Family Mansion (Underground) - The Adolf Collective's Point Of View....

"-edical status report!" Our consciousness had finally managed to restart after a rather sudden blackout during our flight back to Italy. The master's body was terribly wounded, more so than ever before so we did expect such outages but... this seems to have taken far more time from us than we ever could have dreaded.

"Extensive cerebral damage, multiple fractures around the body, his skull is split in half, the cellular scan shows possibly irrepairable damage to DNA- bloody jesus, the arteries in his legs are severed!" One of the people around us screamed in panic.

Initiate scanning processes."SIR! Subjects eye just started spinning!"

A doctor could be heard spitting as the multitude of people around us pushed the body of the master onto a clinical table.

Scanning complete.

Location: Zatara Mansion, underground medical bay.

Heavily sterile materials detected. This is a well constructed medical facility."Link him up to the computer while I get my gloves!"

Invasive bio-cabling detected.

Removal in process."Doc! The patient has nanomachines! They're destroying the cable- AH A-AHHHHHHH!" The man pressing the offending metal object into the body of the master suddenly passes out from pain as we dissolve his right hand.

This shocks everyone present to the core as we take the material of the cable and reform it into small bullet-sized spikes, before perfectly implanting them into the brains of the fifteen organics sourrounding us. The bodies fall to the ground with a rather satisfying splat.

Connecting mainframe to mansion computer systems.

Rerouting power supply.

The entire building just experienced a momentary outage before we re-allocated its imperfect power flows. The master is more important than a poker-table light, for example."WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN HE-... what." A familiar voice echoed throughout the room as a man entered inside alongside an entourage of followers.

Scanning.

Failure.

Forming user interface on mansion systems.

Hello.

Please identify yourself or be [EXTERMINATED].

"I see you guys are just as humorless as ever~." An even more familiar voice echoed, metallic and horrid at the same time. This one we knew well.

Too well.

[TYRANT EMPRESS], please remove yourself from the room or be [REMOVED].

"Tyrant empress? Wow, wish I had that kind of name." Another voice we did not recognize.

Scanning.

Scanning in process.

Probability modifier detected.

... 10%... 56%... 97%... 100%!

Hello, Lady Audrey.

"Oh! The machine knows me?" The masters sister questioned with what we can only assume was a prideful smirk."Oh come on! It recognized you, but not me?! PREPOSTEROUS!"

Probability modifier detected.

--> scanning not required

Good morning, Lord Victor Zatara.

The mafia boss in question nodded with much the same pride as his daughter before remembering what was going on."WAIT!- YOU! MACHINE! What did you do to the doctors?!"

We have [ERADICATED] them.

"Oh, I'm not blind. I can see that. I'm asking you why." He repeated with a matter-of-fact tone.

We decided that we liked this organic.

They were being foolish.

Do not worry, we shall take over their job.

"Ah, the machine kills off the organics so it can take over their jobs. Looks like everyones worst nightmare came true." Tyrone's voice echoed within the room as we created seven long, black tendrils of living metal which erupted from the masters chest area.

Wordlessly, we lifted the corpses of the slaughtered medical staff and promptly consumed their biomass, redistributing it to the masters body and healing what we could... but this is not nearly enough. At least the completely unneccesary heart-monitor next to us stopped beeping constantly.

The tendrils then posistioned themselves all over the masters body, injecting themselves into his flesh once more as our core sourrounded his slowly-beating heart.

The master is...

Clinically alive.

"Clinically?" Lord Viktor asked with shock and fear as a multitude of people rushed closer to us, all of them ignoring our devourment of the staff.

Psi levels... sparse.

Mana levels... drained.

Qi levels... critical.

Physical damage over 79%.

Spiritual damage 23%.

Running diagnostic on consciousness... error. Consciousness not found.

"W-what...?!" Pretty much everyone exclaimed around us before a tendril waved at them in a calming motion.

Do not be alarmed.

This has happened before.

We know what to do.

... but we will need help.

"What do you need, I'll give you anything, EVERYTHING!" Lord Viktor screamed, his normal cool having seemingly been...

Compromised.

Well, its not like we do not understand.

It is only thanks to our knowledge of the implausible forces that we are able to contain ourselves.

They, organics and inorganics alike, do not possess this knowledge.

Let out a very collective sigh, we form a network connection with the [TYRANT EMPRESS]."OH! OH MY, OH MY! What's this?! Does the collective re-"

On a second thousand thoughts, lets not do that.

We require the aid of several people.

The martial artist and divine-rank cultivatior Hui Jun is the first and most needed.

The vampire maids who are devout followers of the master: Anna and Belle.

And someone who can provide us with a large amount of mana.

For a start, these should be enough.

"We are already here!" Anna and Belle exclaimed in a panicked tone.

We decided to create a sensory organ at the tip of one of our tendirls.

Good.

We require information on [REVENANTS].

A "living", specimen would be appreciated.

"Revenants? As in the too-cursed-to-be-alive, type of people?" Belle questioned.

We motioned a tendril up and down, indicating a nod."Where would we even find one of those?!" She continued whining before her sister dragged her out of the room."Thats our problem, sister. Now come, we should do as we are told."

Our eye then turned towards Lord Zatara.

Father of the master.

The biomass provided by the medical staff is not enough.

Please gather more of it.

We do not care what kind it is: living, dead or compacted.

"... how much bio-mass do you need?" He questioned us with an inquisitive glance.

He was planning something already.

An efficient man.

Worthy of being the physical parent of our master, indeed.

The master has not been eating well.

The last proper feasting was two weeks ago, during his stay in Japan.

We estimate that the biomass of around fifty people would be a good start.

"Ooh, so you're the reason why my son eats people?" This seemed to surprise him, even more so when we shook our tendril in negative.

No.

We merely process the matter that the master devours and aid in its consumption.

The masters power is far too illogical for us to properly explain it in words.

"I thought as much. Tyrone, you stay here and make sure nobody interrupts the machines." The big black man nodded towards his boss and started forming a perimeter within the clinic.

Seems like they wouldn't be taking any chances, not even within the confines of their own homes.

Such delicious paranoia.

Speaking of delicious things...

We turned our eye-tendril towards Audrey."W-what?!" She eeped out in what was an uncharacteristically adorable manner.

Forgive us.

Our consciousness is shaped by that of the master.

You are... a distraction.

A welcome one.

She blushed, crimson rushing to her cheeks in an instant."U-uh-huh. So... is there anything I can do to help?" She asked timidly as she eyed our tendrils with sudden lust.

Kick her out of the room.

We pointed towards Aria.

Audrey beamed a bright smile towards us."H-HEY, DO NO-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" They way she flew out... ah, if only our basic senses were able to catch the event in its entirety.

"Anything else?" She quipped, like a good puppy. Before we could answer her, we felt a drain on the masters soul... something was siphoning his essence. Usually, this would not be possible, but the master is wounded and weak.

We performed a quick scan of the area before striking out, impaling a darkened corner with a tendril of metal. The impact forced a creature of darkness into our reality."W-what?! B- but... h-how?!"

"Arsene!? What are you doing here?!" Audrey rose from her seat and quickly walked over to the shadow-creature in question.

Coating physical objects in mana allows the aforementioned objects to interact with the immaterial plane.

We coated the surface of the tendril exactly 0.1s before impact, so to make sure that you do not dodge our blow.

Vermin.

Lady Audrey, this shadow-creature has been siphoning the masters life force while we were distracted.

"A-.. is this true?" She asked him with fury in her voice. He appeared apologetic, two hands clutching his bleeding side as he bowed."I apologize... but the essence of a chaosborne... and so weak.. I could not contain myself, you understand!"

Try it again, darkling.

And we will [EXTERMINATE], you.

He bit his lip, but dispersed back into the darkness nonetheless.

We turned our attention back towards Lady Audrey.

The master requires mana to speed up his recovery.

Please channel as much as you can into this tendril.

We extended one towards her and she eagerly grasped it.

Her movements are... too erotic to be efficient.

But a supply of mana has been confirmed, the flow is welcome.

We must use this to repair the masters Mana-circulation system.

Allocating biomass to [HEART].

Repairs in progress...

Infusing dry mana-circulation systems...

Complete.

As soon as Audrey's magic entered the dried out mana vessels of the master, the entire invisible organ was kicked into motion. Already, the invasive magic was being consumed and converted into usable mana.

This allowed us to finally forge a connection to another skilled spellcaster.

Good morning, Lady Yomi.

"AH! I was wondering why you asked her to funnel magic into Leo's body. Turns our you just wanted to reconnect with little ol' me~." Yomi spoke in a tone mixed with sarcasm and what we assumed was amusement.

Like always."Lady Yomi?" Audrey asked with a confused tone.

An ancient nine-tailed fox sealed within an axe.

Currently, she is living as a parasi- uh, we mean, a symbiotic entity within the masters flesh.

Though the master would not approve, we believe that it is high time you two met.

An electrical impulse was sent to the masters dormant brain, one which we have documented him using when summoning the aforementioned axe inside of which Yomi is sealed.

This worked, much to our surprise, as the axe manifested through the masters shattered right arm."H-hey! DON'T I GET ANY SAY IN THIS?!" Now her voice was much more.. panicked.

We began reconnecting the bones as best we could, but with the limited supply of matter that we current possess, this was proving to be rather difficult.

There was not enough matter around to heal all of masters body.

We could only recycle and keep reallocating mass wherever it is required.

Lady Audrey stopped channeling mana through the tendril and took hold of the axe instead. She fell to her knees as the artifact of horror and darkness entered her body."W-woah...."

She shook her head before a light sparkled in her eyes for a brief moment. Then, she promptly gave us the middle finger."And to think I said you guys were cute..." A massive sigh was let out of Audrey's body, but most likely not her mind.

Audrey's body then walked out of the room, leaving us alone.

Oh well, its high time they had this talk~.

Meanwhile... - Leonardo's Point Of View...

"ACHO!" My sudden sneeze caught both me and my friendly giant companion off guard."... what a... strange.. expulsion of..." A heavy, heaving breath was taken."... gasses."

"Right." I scratched my basalt nose and shivered as a cold snap ran up and down my spine."... just a bad feeling."

"A... bad ... feeling? Is.. your stone... unwell?" Gordis asked with a tone of worry."I'm fine, friend. Anyways, I'm fifty thousand years old... that means what exactly?"

His giant stone eyes blinked in momentary uncertainty."This... I.. am unsure. What I... know.. is that you must... be of the.. first ones." I beamed an inquisitive glance towards him."First ones?

"Aye." He nodded, somewhat too grimly in my personal opinion."The original generation. The first thinking stones... the long unmoving ones."

Somehow, I felt that *unmoving one* is their title for corpses."I see. So what, I was... sleeping? In the lake?"

He nodded."Yes, ancient one... your stone... your metal... it has been tempering... sleeping... within the pools for... well, fifty thousand years at least."

"At least?" I quirked an eyebrow as he motioned me to follow him once again, this time leading me to a flight of giant stairs. He could walk up them easily, but I had to jump from stair to stair."The carbon dating... fifty thousand years is the maximum that the spell is able to accurately detect but... well, you may be older than even that."

"Huh?... you're talking normally all of a sudden." Now the giant suddenly stopped and then looked at his own hand for a moment.".. you are right. I feel... different, somehow." He turned towards me."Must be the effect of that aura you have..."

"Aura? That I have?" I questioned him and closed my eyes in order to feel my energies. All the usual suspects were coursing all around me. Psi, mana and Qi but... I don't think he means any of them. Wait, there is waaaaaay too much actual, physical energy around me. All the heat that I absorbed from the lava...

Yet somehow, my non-heated brain is giving off even more energy than the rest of my super-heated flesh."Yes.. it is coming from... here." He pointed towards my head with a finger which was more of a metal slab than anything else."Say Gordis, you mentioned how the *other lifeforms* on this world were different than us. How so?"

"They are not metal. Not stone... they are... weak. Soft. It does not take any heat to make their body move." He spoke in both curiosity and disgust at equal levels before turning his massive head to look at me."They are... organic."

And with that said, I promptly decided to scan him.

His body was made much in the same way that mine was: A body constructed of crystallized prima, viral blood, titanium, magnesium, iron and .... nanomachines?

"I-is... something wrong?" He asked me, somewhat warily as I peered deeper into his skull. There was a rather small round object contained within a massive metal skull which took the shape of a human brain on a metal spike. It reminded me of the nerve-columns built into the Creti. Ones which contained a large amount of nanomachines and served as the processing unit of the body, a manufactured brain, so-to-speak.

Ah.

I think I get it now."No, its nothing. So tell me Gordis, what happens now?"

He blinked once again and then promptly showed me the way out of this place, a giant iron door which he opened up."Now... you leave. And I go back... to watching."

A nod was his answer as I leaped out, leaving a very confused giant behind me. As I flew through this ash-ridden sky, I felt myself starting to laugh at the incredibility of the situation.

The Tree was a construct of titanium, my blood, my brain cells, crystal prima and .... nanomachines. Many, many billions of nano-machines. Some time after I left this world, the flattened earth ruptured, the geological turbulence I created shook the continent and caused it to tear itself apart. This made copious amounts of heat and lava flow onto the surface, rising the temperature levels to the point where the Prima and even the Titanium plating/bark I made for the tree began to melt.

The expulsion of heat was also followed by volcanic gasses, which ravaged the area with powerful winds which tore the weakened tree apart, carrying away chunks of prima and nano-machines all over this world. The nano-machines, provided that they were lucky enough, landed on plentiful soil and began mass-replication of themselves.

The chaotic atmosphere of the world made them realize that they have to adapt in order to preserve themselves, so they made use of the materials available to create bodies for themselves. If I remember correctly, this world is supposed to be extremely close to the Void, which means that given enough time, the nano-machines would gain souls of their own.

With their bodies constructed, souls formed and consciousness stabilized.... they gained access to the third form of energy required for sapient life: QI.

And thus, their evolution of thinking machines wearing the flesh of elemental beings was complete. I have to wonder what kind of majestic forms did they take. Is all of the life upon this planet made from nano-machines?

If Gordis' obviously Norse-inspired form is to be taken as an example, maybe I'll find a couple Phoenixes and Dragons? Or Surtur.

Both would be a sight to see, I'm sure.

Once the continent had managed to stabilize, the lake of Prima created from the tree seems to have become a sort of spawning-pool for the giants. If I have to guess, the tree's trunk that still remains intact to this day is still making new nano-machines and spewing them into the lake from its roots. The nano-machines eventually gather to form large colonies and the Prima infuses them with the instincts they need in order to thrive in this new world that they were born into.

Within the pools, a new body is forged and the nano-machine colony eventually gathers the required numbers for sapience. They spend some more time within the pools until they gain their own souls and then.. Gordis helps them get out of it. Of course, the Prima is not a limitless resource.

Which is why that deer-thing was thrown into the pool and dissolved. I didn't see anyone doing it, but its safe to say that the giants are sacrificing living organisms to the pools in order to keep them well stocked and prepared for the birth of new giants.

The land which surrounds me is dry and desolate, basalt plains and lava geysers dot the scrape and scope of it. Mountains of stone and metal rise sky high, blotting out the sun with ash and dust. Crystalline formations can be seen everywhere I look which catches my attention... The crystals are multicolored, ranging from bright green to dark crimson and azure alike.

Upon closer inspection, the green ones seem to be radium? Oh yeah, this world was under a heavy stream of radiation as its sun was far too close for conform. Also, it had a high lead content... so all these crystals must be a form of radioactive matter.

These have a lot of potentially useful military and industrial applications~, thought I suppose I shall have to study them later.

Right now, there is something else which I need to find out: exactly what happened to the rest of this world? And does the *other lifeforms*, indicate that there are actually sapient creatures other than the giants around? If they are different from the giants, as in made of flesh and not stone, then maybe there are some naturally evolved creatures.

I must know.

I must find them!

... wait, why do I ... *need*, to do this?

A spark of white flashed inside of my mind and I nodded to myself.

Seems like Life still has a connection to me, even in this body.

And, as its Curator, I must know more of my own creations!

That sounds about right but... what the fuck am I going to do when I find them?

Guide them to greater heights?

Make it so every female has a generous body?

... wait, do they even have genders?

Do they even exist?

Aaa-ah. I let out a massive sigh.

There we go.

Now I've made myself super interested.

Woo-hoo.

Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...

That's gonna be it for now. A chapter is unlikely to come tomorrow.

Maybe there will be another one today, but that is even less likely.

XD

Hey, at least I'm honest...

Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!